by Harmon, AJ
“Hi,” Tim said as he stepped up onto the curb. “Hi Cleo.” He scratched her ears. The tail thumping continued.
Beth was mortified. He would think she came to the station. “I…” she began.
“I’m so happy to see you,” Tim said at the same time.
“You are?”
“I am. I really wanted to apologize for the other night.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for.”
“Yes! Yes there is.” He rubbed his bare arms. “Would you like to come inside? It’s warm in there,” he smiled.
“No. We were just out walking and, and Cleo seems to like coming this way. I should be getting back.”
“Please?” he pleaded. “Just for a minute?”
He was so handsome and Beth felt her will power dissipating as Cleo surged in his direction. “Fine. But just for a minute.”
“Great,” he smiled. “Come on.” Tim placed his hand on the small of her back and led her into the station and up the stairs. There were about eight, or so, firefighters lounging in recliners in front of a big-screen television. It appeared they were watching an action movie with a lot of gun fire and car chases.
Tim made a quick introduction and Cleo made friends instantly as she moved around the men as they fawned over her. Tim ushered Beth into the office he shared, which was empty, and offered her one of the desk chairs. She hesitantly sat.
“I had a great time on Monday…until Amanda showed up. I wish there was an explanation that sounded good, but there isn’t,” he frowned.
Beth shifted in her seat. This was a conversation she didn’t want to be having.
But Tim continued. “It was nothing. Just a one night thing…”
“Apparently not all night,” she whispered under her breath.
“Huh?”
“Nothing,” she shook her head.
“Well, it was never a thing between us. It…it was a mistake. I’m sorry it happened. I’m sorry she made you uncomfortable.”
“I wasn’t,” Beth lied.
“You left.”
“Alright. Maybe a little uncomfortable.”
“We, you and I, hadn’t gone out yet and if we had I would’ve never…I like you and I don’t want to hurt you Beth. I’m really sorry.”
Well what do I say to that? She attempted a smile but it obviously didn’t look like one.
“Are you okay?” Tim asked. “You look like you’re ill.”
Beth sighed. “I’m not ill.”
“Am I forgiven?” he asked.
“You don’t need to be forgiven. It’s not like we’re…like we have some…we’ve just been on a couple of dates.”
“I would like to go on more dates, Beth. With only you.”
She closed her eyes and tried to calm the butterflies in her stomach. She liked the fact that he felt bad. She was kind of enjoying the groveling. The revelation that he only wanted to date her made her bite her lower to lip to keep from smiling.
“My sister just arrived today. I really should be with her while she’s here, but maybe after she leaves?”
“How long is she here?”
“Ten days.”
“Oh.” He looked deflated. “Okay. Can I have your number?”
“Sure.” She pulled a sticky note from the desk beside her, wrote down her cell number and handed it to him. “I should go.”
“I wish I could walk you home but I’m working.”
“I thought you had four days off?”
“Eli has the flu so I’m working his shift.”
He walked her out to find Cleo lying on the couch being fed Cheetos. She looked deliriously happy. Beth couldn’t help but grin.
“Come on girl,” Tim said. She leapt off the couch and ran to him. They all walked down the stairs to the sidewalk. “Thanks for coming by,” he whispered as he kissed her softly on the cheek.
Beth took the leash from him, their hands grazing momentarily and then she and Cleo walked back in the direction of her apartment.
*****
Lieutenant Ralph Lindberg waited for Tim to return upstairs in the firehouse and motioned him into their shared office. Ralph was the senior officer on duty for the shift and one of Tim’s good buddies.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Ralph asked Tim once he’d shut the door and given them some privacy.
“Huh?”
“The woman? Beth? Are you dating her?”
Tim shrugged.
“Seriously Lathem! What the hell are you thinking?”
“She’s not a groupie. It’s not like that.”
Ralph sighed and sat in his chair at his desk. “I’m talking to you as your friend, man. You know it’s a bad idea to date people from fires, or any call we go on.”
“There’s no written regulation that says I can’t,” he defended himself. “And it’s not like I went out looking for her…it was all very innocent actually. Besides, I really like her.”
“Be careful Tim. You’ve seen these end badly.”
Tim nodded his head. He had seen some pretty ugly stuff when women had become fixated on their ‘rescuer’. But he knew in his heart that this really was different and he didn’t want to give her up. He wasn’t going to give her up.
9.
The Sunday gathering for dinner at the Lathem family home was getting bigger. Lindsey had officially joined the family and now baby Gregory was at his first of many, many dinners with his grandparents. This particular dinner was the Sunday before Thanksgiving so everyone was in the same city and everyone was seated around the table.
“We need a new table, Peter,” Maureen told her husband as Tyler, one of Janie’s adult sons, squished himself between Tim and Paul.
Peter sighed. If Maureen decided she needed something, by next week she would probably have it.
“And we’ll have more here on Thursday,” she continued. “Is Shelby still coming?”
Katy nodded. Shelby was a young girl Katy had befriended in a hospital in Portland while she’d worked as an ER nurse. Shelby was now a young woman and attending Boston College. “She will be here. She flies in on Wednesday.”
“And Larry and Irene?” Maureen asked Nic.
“Yep. They’re actually coming down on Wednesday too… or sooner if the weather looks like it’s going to get bad. I know it’s only a couple of hours away but Grandpa gets nervous driving.”
“Actually,” Paul said, “I think I’ll just go get them. Then there’ll be no anxiety at all.”
Nic smiled at her husband. “I love you.”
“Love you too,” he grinned.
Tim had thought about asking Beth to join them but Emma would still be in town and he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. They’d only been on a couple of dates after all, and his family would give her the third degree. He wasn’t prepared to put her through that…yet.
“We might invite Ray too,” Janie added. “He’s still waiting to see if he will get to have his girls or if their mother will cancel at the last minute like she did last year.”
Maureen nodded. “Fine,” she said. “It’s definitely time for a new table.”
“We’ll have to knock out a wall or two then,” Peter muttered under his breath.
“I don’t think we can have that done by Thursday,” Maureen frowned.
“I think Dad was kidding,” Tim grinned.
“Oh,” she said. “But I think it’s a great idea.”
“Oh boy,” Peter shook his head. “What have I done? Why can’t I keep my mouth shut?”
The family all laughed at him as Maureen silently imagined the newly renovated dining room.
*****
If he wasn’t going to see her at Thanksgiving, Tim decided he didn’t want to wait until after Emma had gone home to spend some time with Beth. She answered his call on the second ring.
“I thought I’d take you ladies out for dinner. What do you think?”
“Oh,” grinned Beth. “Um, let me check with Em.”
He heard her
cover the phone and then heard some mumbling but couldn’t make out any words.
“Okay, we can do that. When?”
“Tonight?” It was Tuesday. He’d worked the day before and he worked again on Wednesday.
“Yes. We can have dinner this evening. Where shall we meet you?”
Tim gave her the name and address of an Italian restaurant and they agreed to meet at seven. He hung up the phone happy.
His day went by relatively quickly. He did his laundry and worked out and even cleaned the bathroom after sweeping the floors. The older he got the less he wanted to live like a college frat boy. No longer could empty glasses sit on the coffee table for days before he finally moved them. He didn’t enjoy trying to find clothes that weren’t too dirty to wear. And the sight of an unclean toilet turned his stomach now. He was growing up and his priorities were slowly, but surely, shifting.
Daniel’s death had caused great reflection during the moments his mind wasn’t occupied on other things. The image of his wife and sons standing next to the coffin was seared into his brain. He wasn’t afraid of dying. If he was, he’d chosen the wrong career path. He was afraid of living. He was afraid of living a life that made him take personal risks. He ran into burning buildings all the time. But he’d never let a woman in close enough to risk anything emotionally. Until now.
It was time. He was ready to live. He was ready to take a risk. He was ready to risk it all…for Beth.
*****
Tim was seated in the booth at the restaurant ten minutes early. He sipped on a glass of red wine and waited for Beth and her sister. He felt calm and confident and excited for the opportunity to get to know her better. He wanted to spend as much time with her as he could and for her to get to know him.
As he watched her walk through the door, his heart confirmed it for him. She was the one. She was the one he wanted to share his life with. He’d mocked his brothers for leaving the brotherhood of bachelors and selling themselves into slavery, or marriage as the world called it. But as Tim stared at Beth as she removed her coat and hung it on the coat rack, he understood what it was all about.
He stood as they approached the table and leaned in and kissed Beth on the cheek which made her blush.
“Hi,” he smiled.
“Hello,” she said as she looked at her hands.
“I’m Tim,” he said and offered his hand.
“Emma,” she smiled and shook his hand quickly.
“I’ve already ordered a bottle of wine. Would you care for a glass?” he asked as the women slid into the booth opposite him.
“Yes please,” Emma replied.
“Thank you,” Beth nodded.
He filled both their glasses and the waitress arrived with menus. Within minutes they’d placed their orders and a big bowl of salad was brought to their table.
Emma chatted non-stop about her visit with her sister so far. They’d been shopping, gone ice skating and painted Beth’s bedroom.
“Oh?” Tim asked. “I liked the blue.”
Beth was horrified at his disclosure that he’d been in her bedroom. Emma didn’t miss it either.
“You’ve been in Beth’s bedroom, have you?” she asked as she elbowed her sister.
“Tim…Tim rescued Cleo in the fire. So of course he was in my apartment.”
Emma squinted at Beth and then looked over at Tim.
“I did,” he admitted. “Cleo was shut in the bedroom and I had to search for her.”
“So you’re a fireman?”
“Firefighter. Yep.”
“Hmmm,” she said. “Interesting.”
Beth looked at her sister with the ‘please just behave’ look. Tim saw it and tried to help by changing the subject.
“Tell me about England. I’ve never been.”
Emma obliged and the rest of the night was filled with her top ten reasons why England was so much better than America.
*****
“You can’t be serious!” Emma scoffed.
“What?” Beth had no idea what her sister was talking about.
“Don’t misunderstand me,” Emma continued. “He’s bloody gorgeous, but…”
“But?”
“He’s a fireman!”
“And?”
“He’s a fireman!”
“You’ve already said that,” Beth sighed. “And if he wasn’t a fireman, Cleo would have died in the fire.”
The cab hit a pothole and the sisters bounced into each other.
“Mum will not approve, Beth.”
“There’s nothing for her to approve!”
Emma sighed. “He’s been in your bedroom.”
“I explained that!”
She chuckled. “And you expect me to believe that while he was in a burning building looking for your dog he noticed the pale blue paint on the walls?”
It was Beth’s turn to sigh. She had to admit to herself that in the very dark recesses of her mind she knew that Ann Collins would never accept a fireman as a prospective son-in-law. That was too far beneath her place in society and she would fight Beth every step of the way.
A barrister would have been acceptable to Ann, or a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. But a fireman? Too blue collar. Not good enough. Too much of an embarrassment. It would never do.
Emma was right. This would not end well. If she picked Tim, she’d lose her family, and if she picked her family, she’d lose Tim.
“Bollocks!”
*****
The Lathem house on Thanksgiving Day was swarming with people and was incredibly loud; the young grandchildren were playing and laughing; some of the men were watching football on the television with the volume turned up way too high; Maureen and Janie were in the kitchen; Katy was playing Angry Birds on her tablet; Shelby and Adam were off in a corner chatting away; Andrew and Rory were having a disagreement over which preschool Isabelle would attend…in three years; and Nic sat with her grandparents as they fussed over baby Gregory. Everyone was happy and Maureen was thrilled that they were all there.
Tim sat in the recliner in front of the television but wasn’t paying any attention to the game. His mind was on Beth. He’d broached the subject of Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday evening, but Emma had been quick to point out that the United Kingdom did not celebrate Thanksgiving so they would be spending the day doing the same thing as every other day. Tim decided not to invite them to dinner.
Emma was very different than Beth. They looked similar in that they both had blonde hair, blue eyes and pale skin, but their personalities were nothing alike. Emma liked to be the center of attention and whatever she said was gospel truth. She didn’t like being corrected. Tim had learned his lesson when Emma informed him that London’s population was far more diverse than New York’s. All Tim had said was that New York was in fact very diverse, but Emma had jumped all over him and asked when he’d last been to London. Of course he’d never been so Emma folded her arms with a smug expression on her face and said that she’d been to both cities and was in a position to make her statement. Tim didn’t question anything else she’d said all evening.
Emma didn’t work. She lived at home with her parents on their estate and rode horses and shopped. Her parents owned a flat near Kensington Palace and she liked to spend as much time there as she could. Tim thought of her as the classic stereotype of the youngest child – the baby of the family – until he remembered that he too was the youngest. He didn’t like that thought.
Beth on the other hand was interested in what others had to say and when Tim spoke, he could see that she was concentrating on what he was saying. She’d left home and traveled to a different country and made a life for herself, working hard and establishing herself in a competitive industry, independent of her family. She was kind and considerate and when she smiled, her whole face smiled. She lit up a room. And when he closed his eyes, he saw her face. In his dreams he heard her voice.
Maureen announced that dinner was ready. The television clicked off. Katy put her t
ablet on the coffee table and the grandchildren cheered as they bounced into the dining room.
“You did it!” Rory exclaimed. “You got a new table!”
Maureen smiled. “I did. Isn’t it lovely?”
“We’re gonna have to die a year earlier now,” Peter muttered.
“What?” gasped Janie.
“It cost a year of our retirement money!” he whined. “I’m going to have to die a year younger.”
The family laughed at their patriarch. Matt and Mark made sure their parents would never want for money and the family refused to acknowledge they would ever lose either one of their parents. That would be a moment in their lives that nobody wanted to think about.
“This looks just wonderful,” Irene Wilkins said as her husband pulled her chair out for her.
“Yes it does,” agreed Shelby. “Thanks for inviting me.”
“You are all my family,” Maureen smiled. “And next year, this room will be bigger. We’re going to knock out that wall,” she said nodding at the wall behind her husband, “and expand the dining room so the table fits better. We don’t need a study anymore anyway.”
“Me and my big mouth,” grumbled Peter.
“Well, it is a little tight in here now,” Andrew frowned as his chair hit the sideboard as he tried to sit.
After everyone was finally seated, they all joined hands and Peter said grace. Tim looked around the table at his family. Each couple sat together with their children with Peter and Maureen at opposite ends. He sat by Ben, his older brother that was also still single. Ben had declared at David and Lindsey’s wedding that he was going to stay a bachelor. He wasn’t going to be tied down to anything. At the time, Tim had thought the idea sounded pretty good to him too but now, just a few short weeks later, he thought perhaps Ben was an idiot.
*****
Beth hugged Emma at the entrance to the security checkpoint in the airport. The sisters said goodbye and Emma walked to the first class line and eventually disappeared from sight. Thinking of all the work she’d put off while her sister had been visiting, Beth slid into a taxi and headed home. She had piles of manuscripts to read so she stopped and grabbed some supplies for her self-imposed confinement ‘til she was caught up.